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POSTED BY DiabeticMama

I’ve been using brain entrainment for a couple years now. It provides all the physical benefits of deep meditation without the learning curve. When I listened to my first entrainment track it sent me into the deepest, most restful sleep I’d enjoyed in months — maybe years. Now that I’ve been listening to entrainment tracks every day, they don’t have the same kind of dramatic impact they did when I started. But that’s a good thing. When I started entrainment, I was battling depression and some ongoing chronic health issues. I was chronically sleep deprived. Either I couldn’t fall asleep because my brain was racing, or I couldn’t stay asleep. I was very anxious, and I felt as though my nerves were on edge almost all the time. Now I’m sleeping better, I’m no longer depressed, and my health is substantially better. I almost never get that edgy feeling...

POSTED BY DiabeticMama

The beta test group I mentioned a while back has wrapped up, and I’m now free to share more about it. During the test period I shed just under 15 pounds, my fasting glucose dropped from between 115-120 to around 90-92, I felt more energetic, I was sleeping better, and I felt more cheerful and optimistic. Quite an improvement in just a few short weeks. It wasn’t an easy program (although I found it easier than the Ultra Simple Diet plan I had written about previously). But, man, did it get results! Here’s the outline: First, spend a couple of weeks eliminating all sorts of baddies from your diet including sugar and caffeine Next, spend four weeks following a food plan designed to actually reverse your Type 2 diabetes If your case is stubborn or you’re still not where you want to be, repeat for another four weeks If...

POSTED BY DiabeticMama

Recent research shows that you can have all the genetic predispositions to developing diabetes, but you won’t actually become diabetic unless you have a leaky gut as well. According to Wikipedia, leaky gut is a name used to describe intestinal or bowel hyperpermeability. For those of us without medical degrees, leaky gut means pretty much what you think it means – something is wrong with your digestive system that lets stuff circulate in your body that should have stayed in your intestines until eliminated in the normal way. It causes problems, and lots of them: bowel diseases, arthritis, skin rashes, eczema, psoriasis, food allergies, IBS, chronic fatigue syndrome, hepatitis, pancreatitis, and more. Dr. Leo Galland of the Foundation for Integrated Medicine adds that it “stimulates classic hypersensitivity responses to foods and to components of the normal gut flora; bacterial endotoxins, cell wall polymers and dietary gluten may cause “non-specific”...

POSTED BY DiabeticMama

According to Dr. Al Sears in his newest edition of P.A.C.E. The 12-Minute Fitness Revolution, studies have shown that your lung capacity is absolutely the best indication of your lifespan. The better your lungs work, the longer you’ll live. It sounds too simplistic, but read on. . . According to Dr. Sears, Drs. William B. Kannel and Helen Hubert examined Framingham Heart Study data and concluded that “your lungs are the number one predictor of death.” The Framinhgam Heart Study is a medical study that started in 1948 and has followed a population of thousands for six decades. According to their website, “In 1948, the Framingham Heart Study embarked on an ambitious project in health research to identify the common factors that contribute to cardiovascular disease by following its development over a long period of time in a large group of participants.” The original researchers recruited over 5,200 men...

POSTED BY DiabeticMama

Our spines and nervous systems are truly wonderous anatomical marvels, far more amazing than the most complex communications center ever devised by mankind. Unfortunately, when everything isn’t aligned properly, communication between the brain and other parts of the body suffers and can result in discomfort and even disease. Chiropractric adjustments are the answer. Recently I experienced a different kind of chiropractic adjustment than what I’ve become accustomed to. I first visited a chiropractor years ago. I kept getting that uncomfortable, tingling, falling asleep feeling in my right arm. Then it started happening to my left arm. I went to a regular MD, who told me a pinched nerve in my neck was the culprit, and there was really nothing to do about it. Instead of doing nothing, I decided to visit a chiropractor. Turns out I had been storing stress and tension in my spine for so long it...

POSTED BY DiabeticMama

“The average mineral content of vegetables – like cabbage and spinach – has gone down more than 80% in the past 50 years.” Dr. Al Sears ___________________ “If you want small, tight lungs and decreased cardiac output, then keep jogging. But if you want the kind of longevity and heart attack prevention that comes with bigger lungs and a stronger hear, then shoot for an oxygen debt each time you do an exertion period with PACE.” Dr. Al Sears, P.A.C.E. The 12-Minute Fitness Revolution ___________________ “Unhealthy food is cheaper because our government’s policies support its production. We’re spending nearly $30 billion a year to subsidize corn and soy production. Where do those foods go? Into our food supply as high-fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated soybean oil (trans fats), that are the foundation of almost all fast food and processed foods that are “manufactured” by the food industry.” Dr. Mark...

POSTED BY DiabeticMama

My week on the UltraSimple Diet (from the book The UltraSimple Diet: Kick-Start Your Metabolism and Safely Lose Up to 10 Pounds in 7 Days) is officially over, but as I’ve discovered nothing in this program is ever as simple as the name suggests. The “week” has already become three weeks, with more to come: first was the prep week when I got completely off caffeine, sugar, wheat, and a few other things and did my shopping and preparation for the actual diet. The second week was the “official” diet week. This is now over. Day 1 Days 2 & 3 Days 4 & 5 Days 6 & 7 Now I’m into the third week, the back end of the diet. This includes two weeks of Phase 1 where certain foods are still on the no-no list but I’m able to add a few things back in. Then comes...

POSTED BY DiabeticMama

Hi, and welcome to my new website, Overcome Diabesity. I’m going to be using the word “diabesity” a lot in these videos and on this site. Diabesity is sort of shorthand for diabetes + obesity, as well as a constellation of other symptoms of metabolic disorder. When I use the word “diabetes” here, I’m referring to Type 2 diabetes. Let me tell you a little bit about myself. My name’s Susanna Perkins. I’m in my middle fifties, married, with five grown children. A few years ago I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, and I am medically obese. I carry about 50 extra pounds right now, which on my 5 foot nothing frame is a lot. Since my diagnosis, I’ve learned that it’s actually possible to reverse and eliminate Type 2 diabetes. That’s the road I want to invite you to go down with me. I’m putting together a...

featured news

RECENT FROM Diabesity

Glaxo Smith Kline, maker of diabetes drug Avandia, has just been convicted of fraud and fined $3 billion dollars. They have admitted that they did not accurately report safety data to the FDA. Does that sound like a lot of money to you? Well, GSK doesn’t seem worried about it at all. According to BBC News, they’ve issued a statement saying they’d pay the fines out of “existing cash resources.” What this tells me is that the profits from the sales of Avandia have been so enormous that the company calculated it was better off paying a three billion dollar fine than doing the right thing. All the more...

RECENT FROM Brain Health

I’ve been using brain entrainment for a couple years now. It provides all the physical benefits of deep meditation without the learning curve. When I listened to my first entrainment track it sent me into the deepest, most restful sleep I’d enjoyed in months — maybe years. Now that I’ve been listening to entrainment tracks every day, they don’t have the same kind of dramatic impact they did when I started. But that’s a good thing. When I started entrainment, I was battling depression and some ongoing chronic health issues. I was chronically sleep deprived. Either I couldn’t fall asleep because my brain was racing, or I couldn’t stay...

RECENT FROM Fitness

The internet is a great source of information overload, and sometimes it’s hard to know where to go for valuable, interesting information. Here are seven blogs I follow, and heartily recommend to you as well. The Healthy Skeptic. I’ve just discovered this blog by Chris Kresser, and I’m a big fan already. He writes about many different health topics, and he’s not afraid to call out stupidity and inconsistency when he sees it. Check out his ongoing series on diabesity here. Dr. Hyman is the doc who created [ad#UltraSimple Diet Book], which I’ve followed and documented throughout this website. This is his blog, which provides a ton of useful,...

I read recently that the average American woman absorbs five pounds of toxic chemicals each and every year from her makeup and personal care products. Every time you wash your hair, brush your teeth, rub on moisturizer, use a deodorant or spritz on a fragrance, you’re adding to your toxic load. Did you think the FDA was protecting you? Not so much. However, there are some steps you can take to cut down or eliminate these sources of toxins. First, though, you need to know what they are! Here’s a partial list: Phthalates / DBP. Kids’ toys containing phthalates have been in the news in the past few years, but a lot of cosmetic products include them as...

When we were raising our family, the dinner table was always a place for lively discussion. We’d talk with the kids about their day, current events, local issues, interests — you name it. Through dinner-table conversations we discovered big gaps in the kids’ educations and found out about their friends. I’ve always enjoyed lively discussions. (What I call a “discussion” others have tagged as “debates,” “confrontations” and “arguments”. Did I mention I like my discussions lively?) Recently, though, I’ve banned political discussion at the dinner table. Why? Because I figured out the “lively” part of it was helping to keep me sick and fat. How Can Talking Make You Fat? It’s not the talking that does it. It’s...

The internet is a great source of information overload, and sometimes it’s hard to know where to go for valuable, interesting information. Here are seven blogs I follow, and heartily recommend to you as well. The Healthy Skeptic. I’ve just discovered this blog by Chris Kresser, and I’m a big fan already. He writes about many different health topics, and he’s not afraid to call out stupidity and inconsistency when he sees it. Check out his ongoing series on diabesity here. Dr. Hyman is the doc who created [ad#UltraSimple Diet Book], which I’ve followed and documented throughout this website. This is his blog, which provides a ton of useful, actionable information about health, wellness, metabolism and diabesity. Dr....

I wrote recently about the discovery that diabetes and other chronic diseases can’t exist unless you have the biological markers (DNA), environmental influences and a leaky gut. In order words, even if you are genetically wired to develop diabetes, and even if you’ve been exposed to the environmental risks that bring it on, unless your gut is also damaged and leaky, you won’t actually develop diabetes. Wow! Since then, I’ve been reading everything I can get my hands on about leaky gut, and I’m going to be writing a lot more about it. Here’s a list of symptoms and conditions that result from leaky gut. Some of them will surprise you. They certainly surprised me! Arthritis Diabetes (Type...

Recent research shows that you can have all the genetic predispositions to developing diabetes, but you won’t actually become diabetic unless you have a leaky gut as well. According to Wikipedia, leaky gut is a name used to describe intestinal or bowel hyperpermeability. For those of us without medical degrees, leaky gut means pretty much what you think it means – something is wrong with your digestive system that lets stuff circulate in your body that should have stayed in your intestines until eliminated in the normal way. It causes problems, and lots of them: bowel diseases, arthritis, skin rashes, eczema, psoriasis, food allergies, IBS, chronic fatigue syndrome, hepatitis, pancreatitis, and more. Dr. Leo Galland of the Foundation for Integrated Medicine adds that it “stimulates classic hypersensitivity responses to foods and to components of the normal gut flora; bacterial endotoxins, cell wall polymers and dietary gluten may cause “non-specific”...

Change.org|Start Petition Today is Blog Action Day, and all over the world bloggers are coming together to discuss a single issue: water. I’m not going to write about drought, or ecosystems. I’m sure others far better qualified than I will do justice to those subjects. Instead, I’m going to write about our bodies’ need for clean, uncontaminated water to maintain health. It may seem a bit snarky to complain about our relatively potable water in the US when millions throughout the world don’t have safe drinking water, but I’m going to do it anyway. Tap Water Is Hazardous to Your Health Most US residents enjoy a seemingly endless supply of safe drinking water. Oh, sure, it’s safe in the sense that it’s generally not teeming with killer bacteria. Unfortunately, it’s full of killer chemicals: chlorine fluoride PCBs DBPs prescription drugs arsenic heavy metals Chlorine Chlorine is commonly used in...

Unfortunately, removing toxins from your body is not something you can do once and forget. Toxic chemicals and heavy metals are everywhere — in the air we breathe, in the soil we walk on, in the foods we eat. After I did the UltraSimple Diet in June, my food cravings all disappeared. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve started noticing strong hankerings (I won’t call them cravings just yet) for certain things in the not-so-good-for-me category. I’m putting myself back on the diet for a few days to see if I can kick those bad boys out before they get a strong grip on me again. I’ll keep you posted about how it...

Myths about food and diet abound. Here are a couple of my favorite myths about dietary fat. Myth: A Very Low Fat Diet is Best I read an article recently titled, “Low Fat Diets are Grossly Misrepresented.” The author, T. Colin Campbell is a PhD doctor, not a medical doctor, and he took strong issue with some of the notions bouncing around today about low fat diets. I totally agree with the author when he talks about carbs that are healthy for us to eat vs. carbs that are not. No issues there. I also agree with him that obesity rises as people eat more and more processed “foods.” However, he goes on to advocate a low protein, plant-based diet (translation: vegetarian) containing only about 10-12% fat. To this I say a resounding “hooey.” How does he account for the health of Eskimos, whose traditional diet is over 80%...

It took me a couple of weeks to get back on track after my recent travels, but I’m happy to say I’m a pound down from before I left on my trip, and my fasting glucose is back down as well. I did it by changing my PACE routine. (Find out more about PACE here and here. I realized that, by focusing on laps in the pool, I wasn’t putting out the effort that would really make a diffierence. Instead, because I wanted to complete a lap, I was holding back. That’s exactly the opposite of what makes PACE effective. Push Hard, Don’t Coast In order to increase my lung and heart capacity, I need to push myself to my limits in short bursts, and I wasn’t doing that. Why? Because, as I’ve become fitter, it takes more effort to push those limits. Where swimming two laps of a...

The Massachusetts company AquaBounty Technologies wants to sell the salmon it has genetically modified. The FDA has been holding hearings on whether to permit it. If the FDA approves this “Frankenfish,” there will be no special labeling to let us know. As consumers we will not know whether we’re buying salmon that’s evolved naturally or salmon that’s been tinkered with. Scientists and consumer advocatess have been tossing out facts, distortions, half truths, misleading statements. . . you know, the usual. On the one hand, we have a science writer for NPR pooh-poohing the public’s concerns. On the other hand, we have activists at Food & Water Watch stating: “The commercialization of GE salmon could threaten public health, wipe out wild salmon populations, diminish biodiversity of marine environments, and further drive the unhealthy trend of producing more of the fish we eat in overcrowded, unhealthy factory fish farms. “That’s all...